My wife was talking to her dad this morning – he’s has a farm in central Oregon and isn’t into tech – and he said “we need to become more computer literate so we can communicate with the younger generation.” We’ve helped her dad and his wife in the past with getting them a computer and setting it up in the Internet – it has never stuck. But he continued “…well, you know Apple is coming out with a new kind of computer today…”
Now maybe he happened to be listening to NPR or glancing through the paper, but this was an unusual, albeit impressive, statement that i feel point to the secrecy and buzz (and buzz through secrecy) that Apple is very good at.
Because if you give a farmer in Central Oregon a computer…
Tomorrow is apple’s special event during which many are hopeful/expecting a new category of device to emerge. The tablet. Much as been written and speculated over the past few months (years even) about what this will be. Before tomoorow’s event hit, I wanted to put down my thoughts on what this thing might look like – not so much that i want to get my $.02 of speculation in, but rather to see how accurate a prediction I could make (maybe those are the same thing?)
So here goes:
- thin, aluminum device with a 10″ screen. As thin as an iPhone
- few hardware buttons or controls. Like the iPhone.
- runs a new version of mobile OSX – 4.0. This version will also run on the iPhone but maybe with slightly fewer features
- will run iPhone apps, but perhaps be more HD-like
- will connect in with iTunes and app store
- at least 32 GB flash memory (perhaps with 64 GB model for more $)
- weight around 16-20 oz (about 4 iPhones)
- 7+ hours of battery life
- wifi and Bluetooth
- GPRS radio for connecting to Internet and downloading content. On Verizon.
OK, that’s what I’m going with – let’s see how this looks tomorrow…
